Barbara Howard, left, stars with Ethan Klein in the Schenectady Light Opera Company's production of "Caroline, or Change," which opens 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, and continues for seven performances through ... more

Singer and actress Barbara N. Howard is taking on some challenging new material as the star of "Caroline, or Change," the musical opening Friday night at Schenectady Light Opera Company and running through Feb. 16. Yet on another level, the piece evokes aspects of Howard's own family legacy.

"Caroline is a domestic and has four children," explains Howard of the role she plays. "I hold her in such high regard as a woman, because my own mother worked as a domestic. They had to deal with the daily grind of taking care of someone else's children then come home and take care of their own. It takes strength to be able to get through that."

The musical is set in Louisiana during the fall of 1963 when the nation, already dealing with the civil rights movement, was rocked by the death of a president. Amid such turbulent times, Caroline provides a stability for the both her own restless daughter and the Jewish family that employees her.

"The show gives you who she is and what she's been through and also takes you back a bit prior to the setting and time," Howard says. "Then, at the end, it gives you an understanding of the promise for the future."

Opportunity also played out in Howard's own family. Her parents left their roots in the South in order for her father to take a job with an asphalt company in the Northeast. After settling in the Little Italy section of Albany, they bought a neighborhood grocery store.

"We went to Catholic school and they put six of us through college," Howard says. "The Bible says despise not the small beginnings. So it's not where you start, it's where you end up."

Howard likens portions of the show's music to "Porgy and Bess."

"It's a mixture," she says. "Some parts are a little jazzy, some more gospel, and others straight Broadway. It's fun and it moves, doesn't stay in one spot."

And the score almost never stops. It is a "through composed" musical, meaning that most of the dialogue is conveyed through singing rather than spoken words. While that's more descriptive of an opera, other relatively recent such musicals include "Evita" and "Ragtime," which Howard performed in at the Cohoes Music Hall a few years ago.

"It's like a light opera," Howard says. "You have to be much more in tune to the character than if it's a straight drama."

After its 2004 Broadway debut, "Caroline, or Change" received six Tony nominations including for best musical. The creators were composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tony Kushner. Tesori's other Broadway credits include "Shrek, the Musical" in 2008, and her latest, "Violet," is scheduled to open in April. Kushner received the Pulitzer Prize for his AIDS-era epic "Angels in America," and among his many other works, he wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln."

Tesori and Kushner teamed up again for "A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck," a one-act opera that debuted at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2011. Based on an incident in the life of playwright Eugene O'Neill, "Blizzard" is being expanded to full-evening piece, supported by a commission from the Metropolitan Opera.

Tackling such a sophisticated piece as "Caroline, or Change" is a sign of continued ambition for the Schenectady Light Opera. The cast numbers 17 performers. Direction is by Corie Rowe and the musical director is Michael Lotano.

"I've always had a love for the stage and the gift of song," she says. "You partner those things and it hopefully comes out as something beautiful. You give of yourself to the audience and it comes back to you hopefully."